But the tipping point was probably in July, where more than 300 flights were cancelled because of bad weather.

The waiting got even worse, some people endured 17 hour delays - which led to some staff claims the scenes at the airport were the "the worst they had ever seen."

Keen to understand what happened at Stansted this summer, I spent a day at the airport talking to staff.

What I found was surprising. Airports have changed over the years, but much more than I had realised.

Stansted is like an organism, with lots of cells working together.

When there is a problem in one area is has a huge knock on effect and the whole operation is disrupted.

Here are the issues, and here's what I found out:

Luggage delays

Luggage delays infuriated passengers this summer, on my visit to Stansted I sat down with the airport's chief operating officer Brad Miller to understand what happened.

He pointed out two major problems - baggage delays and flight cancellations.

Mr Miller said the baggage delays, "which were infuriating for so many passengers," were mostly caused by flights arriving later than expected - where there were no staff assigned for the period of arrival.

The root cause, he said, were "loads of thunderstorms, Eurocontrol problems and air traffic control strikes."

He said: "Invariably, we've seen the most amount of baggage delays post midnight.

"On one Sunday for example, we expected 17 aircraft to come back after midnight. Swissport [Ryanair's former carrier] and everyone was geared up for that. We actually saw 31 aircraft come back.

"It was a bit of a double whammy. There were 14 aircraft supposed to come back before midnight, when they had the resources to deal with it.

"But they didn't.

"Their resource drops after midnight because they're expecting everyone back - so you have more flights and less resources to deal with them

He added that it's not as simple to give people overtime to cover the delays.

"It would be simple to ask them to do overtime as a one off," he said. "But there's been loads of thunderstorms, loads of air traffic control [ATC] strikes, and loads of Eurocontrol problems. So you get stuck.

"Do I burn out my people for today? But then I'm probably going to harm the operation tomorrow - because they're all just going to be knackered.

"And actually, the same thing might happen the day after, and the day after that, and the day after that.

"So that's still not great for the passenger."

At a point, he added, "when it would have been unreasonable to ask for overtime."

What has the airport done about this?

(Image: Rebecca Jones)

Mr Miller said Stansted had to speak with the airlines and handlers about medium and long-term solutions, as well as short-term solutions to make sure the problems do not happen again.

The medium to long-term solutions were to invest in more people, and spend money.

But he wanted to see how the airport could help in the short-term, so that unforeseen emergencies had sufficient back-up.

"Medium to long-term, they can invest in more people. But these are skilled people.

"It takes time to bring them in and recruit them, get them through the pass system. Get them up to speed. And then once you're out there, it's quite a daunting place, you have to get comfortable so you're acting safely and performing well.

"But in the short term, we've been thinking about how to maximise those skilled people, and look at the tasks that people can do which aren't as skilled.

"So on a daily basis, or whenever we have disruption, we have nine to 12 volunteers that come out of the baggage teams that are supposed to do the maintenance. They do loading of bags."

He's referring of course, to the on-call Team Stansted, where staff members can optionally put their names forward for shifts when problems occur.

So if there's an issue that needs urgent attention, people on that list would be called to see if they're free to be extra hands.

Each member might not be able to make it, but the important thing is that there will be people who are.

The duties range from anything to do with baggage handling, to customer service - which may involve handing out food or air beds for people who have to wait overnight.

Delays and cancellations to flights

Delays and cancellations happen all the time. It's part and parcel of an operation affected by so many variables.

But there was a distinct problem this summer, and there were a number of reasons for it.

I spoke with head of airside operations, David Cran, who helped me understand each problem more clearly.

Thunderstorms

The yellow warnings run today (July 26) from 2pm to 9pm and tomorrow (July 27) from 2pm to 11:45pm (Image: Getty Images/jctabb)

How the airfield works, is that every plane that sets off from the landing area follows a set route or corridor in the sky.

Only one plane can land or lift off at a time, and each aircraft has a space of around four miles.

I won't get too sciency, but this is because of the air vortex turbulence that forms behind an aircraft as it passes.

When there's a weather problem, such as fog for example, that distance is increased. It's because the ride isn't as smooth, and pilots need to see where they're going - so that causes extra delays.

But when there's thunderstorms, and there were a few this summer, the flight has to take a different route or just doesn't fly.

Air traffic controllers then have to try and navigate a plane so it doesn't fall within a distance of another plane.

"Aviation is the safest form of travel," said Mr Cran. "As we get busier, we need to keep it safe.

"We can't move as many aircraft on foggy conditions, but that's no reason to restrict us on a clear day, but in foggy we have a buffer.

"We have around 50 movements an hour in the morning, but when there's fog we can't reach that many, so we then have to catch up later."

Ryanair

It's important to understand just who flies at Stansted to understand how there were so many disruptions this year.

One name that has been flying around, particularly this summer, was Ryanair.

Ryanair, of course, has had problems with industrial action this summer, which saw hundreds of flight cancellations and delays.

There were cabin crews and pilot strikes to try and get better working conditions, a fair wage, improved sick pay and employment contracts based on their own country's law - rather than Irish law, which is where Ryanair is based.

Problems continued, where cabin crew and pilots across Europe went on strike, which saw 250 flights cancelled and 35,000 passengers disrupted.

But how did it affect Stansted?

David Cran, head of airside operations at Stansted

Mr Cran said: "We've got one runway. This is what we call an apron - this is a big area. The bit the aircraft parks on is called is the stand.

"Quite often you get people saying they're stuck on the runway, but they haven't, it's a stand.

"All of the stands are taken up by planes overnight, including cargo - 50 per cent of those planes are Ryanair planes.

"In fact, out of our predicted 29 million passengers, 22 million odd are Ryanair."

Air traffic control

The air traffic controllers' job is to make sure the planes don't collide with each other.

They tend to spend their time up in the tower on the airfield.

There are around 20 controllers at Stansted, with around five working per day. Two or three controllers are usually working at any given time.

Because the job is so high-pressure, air traffic controllers can't do more than two hours without taking a 30 minute break.

Traffic controllers at Stansted only look after plane traffic around 10 miles out from the airport and everywhere on the ground - all by primarily looking out the window.

The rest of it is done by radar, a big network of which is piped down to Swanwick in Hampshire, where there is a large team of controllers managing airspace.

Each route the planes are designated to are finalised by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) through consultations, because of noise pollution etc. You can't just fly anywhere.

So if sometimes you're thinking, why don't they just take another route if one is proving difficult because of weather conditions, for example? There's your answer. Things will take time and coordination.

Shortage and strikes

The nightmare at Stansted Airport on August 1 when Ryanair flights were cancelled or delayed due to bad weather and air traffic control (ATC) restrictions (Image: Iwan Teifion Davies/PA Wire)

But how are they causing problems? Well, two issues. There's a shortage and they are striking, a lot.

He added: "There is also a tendency for industrial action for air traffic control."

There have been a number of strikes over staffing and pay this year - particularly among the French air traffic controllers in May, June and July, which coincided with all the chaos.

According to Eurocontrol, an air traffic control company, more than 16,000 flights were delayed in June this year because of strikes.

In fact, the European Commission said in July that since 2005, there had been 357 air traffic control strikes in Europe, which is the equivalent to around one month per year.

Figures from CAA showed this year that 52 per cent of air traffic delays at airports in London in the first quarter happened at Stansted.

The CAA said NATS, the air traffic control company that works at Stansted, needed to address its staffing shortages.

NATS fired back and said staffing numbers would not make a difference, and that the introduction of new technology had caused the problems.

But the point is, aviation authorities tell airlines what percentage of flights they need to cancel ahead of each strike period.

Which means, airlines working with Stansted regularly have to cancel flights and accommodate hours of delays.

Lack of clear representation

Stansted Airport (Image: Laura Lean/PA Wire)

Complaints were made in the summer about the lack of customer service representatives when there were cancellations.

People wanted information, but the perception was that they couldn't find anyone.

Stansted's challenge, it says, is that airlines have "different resource levels per airport".

The example they gave is that, if there's a British Airways flight that's cancelled in Heathrow, back office staff will be there to deal with the complaint because its headquarters are in Heathrow. The same goes for Ryanair in Dublin Airport.

Airline staff are not always there to help with complaints when flights are cancelled late at night.

Ms Melody said: "For example, we had really bad weather on July 27, and I was on site until around 2am that evening to be an extra pair of hands.

"Each person I spoke to had a completely different scenario, different reasons for travelling - they're already stressed before they hit the front door. 15 minute delays can stress a person out.

"It's just about making sure everyone has the information and we'll at least try and get them comfortable for the evening.

"It's difficult, because it's people's lives and we care about our passengers.

"In an environment where you've got thousands of passengers waiting you're not going to get to everyone."

What I gathered from head of customer services Rachael Melody, was that the team bears the brunt of a lot of frustrations from passengers that don't necessarily lie with the airport.

In fact, what was notable is that Stansted is essentially a landlord. It's got the building, pieces of equipment, security, managers.

But actually, out of the 12,000 odd staff working at the airport, only 1,800 are employed by Stansted.

Ms Melody said the airport receives around 500 complaints each month, which include results of a survey given to each passenger asking for their feedback - even if it's down as a little constructive criticism, it counts as a complaint.

The most common complaints, she says, are about queues and delays.

"No-one likes to queue," said Ms Melody. "The perception of queues is that when you see one, you're there for hours.

"At times they can be warranted. Definitely there are occasions because of the scale [of the operation].

"There will be times where passengers may not have the smoothest experience. Recently we have had some cancellations, and if you are on a cancelled flight and you cannot speak to your airline, who else is there to speak to?

"We often get dual position complaints and we always have to deal with the passenger.

"We have been hit with bad weather, air traffic control restrictions, and the scale of the operation has felt the impact of that.

"But when you think of the percentage of the passengers affected, it's a small amount - but that does not devalue the importance people have.

"We care about our passengers."

Disability

A branch of the customer service department includes the passenger services unit - headed by Neil Banks.

One of the responsibilities includes working with companies like OmniServ, a company looks after passengers of reduced mobility.

The airport came under fire in the summer after paralympian and disability rights campaigner Anne Walufa Strike was left stranded at the airport on her return from the world para athletics European championships in Berlin.

Airport staff failed to meet her flight to take her off the plane.

Initially, both Ryanair and Stansted said that responsibility for the incident may have laid with Omniserv - but after an investigation, found that the company had done nothing wrong.

What's being done about the problems?

On the disability report, a Stansted Airport spokesman said: "London Stansted acknowledges the findings of the CAA’s Accessibility Report and is committed to working closely with the CAA, Omniserve - our service provider - and all our on-site partners to ensure that passengers with disabilities are able to travel independently and confidently through the airport.

"Stansted has over the past year invested significantly in its infrastructure by re-locating access points, expanding reception areas and investing in equipment to speed up the process of boarding aircraft. As a result, we now welcome record numbers of passengers with disabilities to the airport.

"We have also worked in partnership with organisations such as Changing Places and Dementia Friends to ensure our facilities are suitable for an even wider range of passengers.

"The CAA, in its report last year, asked Stansted to focus on improving engagement and consultation with representatives of disability groups. This year we have established a dedicated Disability Forum which has fed directly into new ideas to improve the airport experience for passengers with disabilities.

"We recognise that we still have more work to do to make Stansted as accessible as possible, and we are committed to further improving on our record of service and engagement."

What next for Stansted?

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Part of the problem, Stansted feel, is that the airport needs more space to handle its operation better.

Paul Willis, transformation director for Stansted, points to the planned £600 million expansion of the airport, which includes a new arrivals terminal.

What they're trying to do, he said, is to support up to 43 million passengers by 2028.

To facilitate the number of passengers, Stansted will be separating the arrival and departures lounges.

A new 36,000 sqm new arrivals-only terminal will be built, then the original building will be turned into a departures-only terminal - which will double in size to 35,000 sqm.

At the moment Stansted has 89 check-in desks. It's only just built 12, and 18 more will be built for next summer.

This will of course mean increasing the number of flight movements per hour to around 55 in peak times.

That'll be done through increasing the number of aircraft stands.

Paul Willis, Stansted transformation director

Stansted has around 15,000 car parking spaces at the moment. Stansted will be increasing that by 9,000 with a multi-storey car park.

"More spaces and shorter walking distances to make the process and accessibility a lot better," said Mr Willis.

It will, of course, be a bumpy ride to get all of the plans approved.

Uttlesford District Council's planning committee meet next week (November 14) to determine them in a special meeting.

Main opposition will come from Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE), a campaign group dedicated to limit any form of expansion.

Just this week, SSE chairman Peter Sanders released a statement condemning the plans.

He claims the expansion would "inflict yet more noisy misery" on local residents, and would be a "recipe for gridlock" on the M11.

Carbon dioxide emissions, he claims, would also increase by "over a million tonnes a year" on average.

Stansted however, feel they have a "robust" case, despite the potential pitfalls.

"They've got a view," said Mr Willis. "They've got one agenda, which is to stop expansion.

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Stansted Airport

"We employ 12,000 people locally, that will grow to 17,000 people - so for me the benefits of expanding the airport with the balance around noise and environment, is a really robust case to expand Stansted.

"But we do listen. This is a local community airport.

"We're very proud of what we operate today and will operate in the future."